Unfortunately, this got put on the back burner with trying to test and release Bill Prieger's coupler values. My bad. I will get right on it as soon as I finish testing a couple of new RR features for Mike Simpson. LOL One-armed wallpaper hanger comes to mind.

Unfortunately, this got put on the back burner with trying to test and release Bill Prieger's coupler values. My bad. I will get right on it as soon as I finish testing a couple of new RR features for Mike Simpson. LOL One-armed wallpaper hanger comes to mind.

Please don't apologize for this. I greatly appreciate the new coupler values, and intend to implement them as soon as I can get some money to Mike.

I'm not too familar with the coal industry. I found out what coal looks like after going through the coking process. Then I got to wondering why they need different hoppers for this product. I did some searching on the internet but with little success. I found one site that mentioned coke is not too tolerant of rail travel because it tends to crumble during transport which makes it worthless for the blast furnace. Okay, that makes it easier to understand why they need different hoppers and I assume they are designed to lessen the rigors of transport. I still couldn't really find any pictures of these hoppers.

I hope somebody can post some pictures or point me to a website that does. Thanks!

Coke also weighs less than coal, so the hoppers for coke transport will have a high cubic foot capacity.

Correct. What that translates into in terms of making accurate models is that, for example, a 70 ton capacity hopper may be loaded to capacity with gravel, and yet be filled only two-thirds of the way to the top of the car. Or, a 70 ton capacity coal hopper filled all the way to the top with coke may not actually be filled to capacity. If an ordinary coal hopper is converted to carry coke it is not unusual for the sides to be built up higher so that it can carry its full capacity.

Back before aluminum cars, when typical large sized hoppers were 70 ton nominal capacity, in round numbers the empty car could weigh 66,000 lbs and could carry 154,000 lbs of payload. If for some reason they could only put 140,000 lbs of payload into the car, then ten percent more cars would have to be moved. At 66,000 lbs empty weight per car, plus eight solid bearings per car, the railroad would do well to modify the cars to get the payload up to the limit!